100 years ago the 1918 flu pandemic swept the globe and killed millions of people

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The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920), also known as the Spanish flu, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people around the world, including people on remote Pacific islands and in the Arctic, and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million (three to five percent of the world's population),making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.

Disease had already greatly limited life expectancy in the early 20th century. In the first year of the pandemic, life expectancy in the United States dropped by about 12 years. Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast, the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults.

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Historian Alfred W. Crosby recorded that the flu originated in the U.S. state of Kansas,and popular writer John Barry echoed Crosby in describing Haskell County, as the point of origin although already in late 1917 there had been a first wave in at least 14 US military camps.

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In the U.S., about 28% of the population became infected, and 500,000 to 675,000 died. Native American tribes were particularly hard hit. In the Four Corners area alone, 3,293 deaths were registered among Native Americans. Entire village communities perished in Alaska. In Canada 50,000 died. In Brazil 300,000 died, including president Rodrigues Alves. In Britain, as many as 250,000 died; in France, more than 400,000.I

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